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gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 09:17 PM Sep 2013

for my 5,000th post why I am a liberal!

Last edited Tue Sep 17, 2013, 10:06 PM - Edit history (1)

To begin with it is because of war!

I have seen all my life the ravages of war upon actual people.
I was born in Germany 12 years after World War II and I was born two months early directly because of war. My mom was living in a major city and Hitler ordered all the children to leave the cities (as Hitler put it, to preserve the future of the Third Reich) because there was no transportation during the winter of 1943 she had to walk for miles and miles in icy and snowy conditions. This gave her frost bite and in order to save the life of her child (me) she had to have her leg amputated below the knee and the toes on her right foot also amputated. All my life from a very early age I saw her suffer. I saw her both suffer and also put up with the snide comments from my peers. The neighborhood I was born into 12 years after the war was not very sanitary. I contracted a case of encephalitis and this left me with poor eye sight, hyper activity and equilibrium problems, once again not being able to be a full part of my peers and also caused me to struggle in school toil mid high school. I struggled to be normal according to my peers all through my youth.

When I was seven, a week before Christmas, my father had a fatal heart attack as a result of being shot in January of 1961 in Vietnam. He died and I remember to this day being a small child, looking at flag draped coffin and listening to the mournful rendition of taps followed by the soul searing blasts of the rifles as the military saluted his service and we laid him to rest at 38 years old.

I have seen first hand upon both my parents and myself the direct detrimental and brutal effects of aggression and national belligerence and I don't care what you call it, a police action, an incident, a campaign, a response, war is war! And for most of my adult life it has been the liberals who have advocated for solutions other than war. It has been the liberals who have stood up to the rest of the common national thought and have been brave enough to reason for a non violent solution.

This along with lengthy teaching about social justice from the Franciscan's as I attended a Catholic School has inculcated in me not only an abhorrance for military aggression, but a love for the poor. It taught me that we are our brother's keeper..."blessed are the poor" "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" "the poor you shall always have among you"
and my friends, voting to cut food stamps as conservatives do, voting to cut education, voting to cut mass transit, voting for policies that decimate the environment, voting for obscene sums of money for the military, voting for incarceration over rehabilitation is not being a liberal.

One of my greatest sorrows politically was when during Ronald Reagan's presidency the word liberal became a bad word and the Democrats and even some liberals shied away from it. Some called themselves progressives. Well I wear the label liberal proudly. I ran for US Congress from the left and didn't win but did change the conversation in our district. As a naturalized citizen that is my proudest political achievement.

I thank DU for being here. To talk, share, converse, argue, to laugh, have my mind changed, to vent and learn.You're a great community and I am honored and proud to be a part of it. Thank you for letting me chime in 5,000 times!

29 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
for my 5,000th post why I am a liberal! (Original Post) gopiscrap Sep 2013 OP
Thank you for sharing your story with us. William769 Sep 2013 #1
Thanks! gopiscrap Sep 2013 #6
My thanks also. The most belligerent and bellicose proponents of war are imo chicken-shit indepat Sep 2013 #29
Awesome!!! spartan61 Sep 2013 #2
Thanks gopiscrap Sep 2013 #5
Thank you for this. MuseRider Sep 2013 #3
Thanks!!!! gopiscrap Sep 2013 #4
I hope you're here for another 5000 posts. House of Roberts Sep 2013 #7
thanks! gopiscrap Sep 2013 #8
been watching your posting for a while rurallib Sep 2013 #9
Thanks I came to the US and was taught once again by the Franciscans gopiscrap Sep 2013 #10
Congratulations on achieving 5000 posts, and here's to many, many more! CaliforniaPeggy Sep 2013 #11
Thank you, you also. gopiscrap Sep 2013 #12
How long did it take to hit 5000? Spitfire of ATJ Sep 2013 #13
4 years 2 months gopiscrap Sep 2013 #16
Yup. I talk too much.... Spitfire of ATJ Sep 2013 #17
Congratulations, gopiscrap! Iwillnevergiveup Sep 2013 #14
thank you!! gopiscrap Sep 2013 #15
Excellent! JEFF9K Sep 2013 #18
the word progressive is not new hfojvt Sep 2013 #19
my mom got the frost bite on her leg and toes as a child walking through the German gopiscrap Sep 2013 #22
How awful hfojvt Sep 2013 #25
yup. I don't know all that was behind it gopiscrap Sep 2013 #28
As a liberal, I am PROUD to stand with you! lastlib Sep 2013 #20
Thanks I have long said that friggin reagan was our worst president ever gopiscrap Sep 2013 #23
Congratulations on your 5,000th post. TexasTowelie Sep 2013 #21
Thanks gopiscrap Sep 2013 #24
I am glad you are here and congrats on 5,000 posts. hrmjustin Sep 2013 #26
Great post Art_from_Ark Sep 2013 #27

indepat

(20,899 posts)
29. My thanks also. The most belligerent and bellicose proponents of war are imo chicken-shit
Wed Sep 18, 2013, 06:59 PM
Sep 2013

chicken-hawks who have never directly suffered the realities of war.

MuseRider

(34,060 posts)
3. Thank you for this.
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 09:42 PM
Sep 2013

It is really interesting and thank you for running for office as a proud liberal.

Liberals are still for all those things it just seems that there are fewer old style liberals in the Democratic Party than there used to be. Too bad, the new dems are hard to place on the left end of the spectrum.

I remember feeling that way with Reagan as well. Rush would growl out the word and make it sound dirty and gross. I don't care to call myself anything but liberal, it is the title I use. Not a Democrat so I feel totally comfortable with the use of liberal.

A great 5,000th post What a life story you have, thank you for sharing it with us.

rurallib

(62,346 posts)
9. been watching your posting for a while
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 10:28 PM
Sep 2013

I really admire your well thought out posts. Keep it up.

I was a product of the Catholic school system here in the US. One thing that stuck with me was the Catholic teachings on social justice (helping the poor etc.). Sadly the church in the US has seemed to have abandoned those teachings and now concentrates on gays, abortions and keeping their property. It is a shame.
It was the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary or BVMs as they were usually called (as kids we called them black veiled monsters).
I believe if there is a heaven every woman who became a teaching BVM has a spot there.

The teachings on social justice still guide me daily.

Congratulations on #5000 - many more.

gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
10. Thanks I came to the US and was taught once again by the Franciscans
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 10:37 PM
Sep 2013

I wound up singing all over the world for the Roman Catholic Church when I was 15 my mom had a stroke and was incapacitated for the rest of her life. I became the foster child of a Lutheran Minister who continued that social justice teaching. I was able to go to college because of my dad's VA benefits. When I was 19 I sang for the Lutheran Church all over the nation for 15 months. I have been incredibly blest to both ply my passion(singing) and also to express and take part politically in the nation I am naturalized in.
Some of the Franciscans who were my teachers as a child in the US have become my protesting buddies. I love it, they are also supporters of the peace and justice project I work with.

BTW: I have been to Iowa City loved it. Also Cedar Rapids, Ames, Olds, Blairstown and Davenport and had a great time! Thank you for your input on DU also!!! Mike

CaliforniaPeggy

(149,308 posts)
11. Congratulations on achieving 5000 posts, and here's to many, many more!
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 10:44 PM
Sep 2013


Thank you too for sharing your life story. You have seen and experienced so much more than most of us, and hearing about all of that is a true education.

DU is a wonderful community, and I am glad you're part of it!

gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
12. Thank you, you also.
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 10:46 PM
Sep 2013

This is not my native language so sometimes I mess up with the written communication, but usually some one catches me on it and I am able to correct it.

 

Spitfire of ATJ

(32,723 posts)
17. Yup. I talk too much....
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 11:21 PM
Sep 2013

BTW: I just noticed that was post #10,500 and I just had my 10,000th on August 31st of this year,...as in 500 posts in 17 days.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018469688

I repeat:

I talk too much.

Iwillnevergiveup

(9,298 posts)
14. Congratulations, gopiscrap!
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 11:14 PM
Sep 2013

What you have overcome and accomplished in your life is astonishing.

You express your thoughts and ideas extremely well and passionately - we can always use more like you in this country. Here's to another 5,000.

hfojvt

(37,573 posts)
19. the word progressive is not new
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 11:45 PM
Sep 2013

I have always used it, thinking it meant somebody to the left of a liberal, although I now understand it has/had been co-opted by the DLC.

Also I do not understand how you could be born 12 years AFTER WWII and yet your pregnant mother left the city because of Hitler and because of the war?

Did Hitler become mayor of Frankfurt after WWII and was there a war between Siegen and Frankfurt at the time you were born?

I am having a hard time with the verstehen.

gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
22. my mom got the frost bite on her leg and toes as a child walking through the German
Wed Sep 18, 2013, 12:00 AM
Sep 2013

countryside...it was when she was pregnant with me that because of the frost bite, the hormones in her body, caused the leg to become gangrene and she had to have it amputated. She lived with leg trouble for 11 some years before her pregnancy and then when she got pregnant with me it came to a crisis point.

gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
28. yup. I don't know all that was behind it
Wed Sep 18, 2013, 01:07 AM
Sep 2013

there was probably a lot more to it than that. But that was the explaination she gave me. By the time I was old enough to really dig into it, she was unable to comprehend anything and then she died.

lastlib

(22,981 posts)
20. As a liberal, I am PROUD to stand with you!
Tue Sep 17, 2013, 11:45 PM
Sep 2013

Thank you for this! I have watched my entire adult life, since the Nixon Administration, as conservatives stood up for conserving only wealth for the wealthy, and power for the powerful--everyone else could go fuck themselves, as Mr. Cheney so indelicately put it. Reagan enshrined it as the highest good, and every right-wing "leader" since then has perpetuated it and expanded it. I am sick of it.

gopiscrap

(23,674 posts)
23. Thanks I have long said that friggin reagan was our worst president ever
Wed Sep 18, 2013, 12:03 AM
Sep 2013

and mainly because he made it popular to care only for yourself.

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